The NFL hit an ethical high-water mark on Sept. 24 when owners and players stood or acted in solidarity over the legitimacy of peaceful dissent during the playing of the national anthem.

Dozens of team owners or CEOs issued statements or stood arm-in-arm with players defending their right — and that of all Americans, for that matter — to speak out on passionate concerns: in the case of kneeling football players, the issue of police brutality toward African Americans.

That Sunday, they defied a president who, threatened by scandal, had desperately sought a diversionary wedge issue and found it in — what had been, early in the season — a dwindling number of players kneeling during the anthem.

That was then.

Donald Trump's profanity-laced condemnation of the kneelers succeeded in stoking national anger and resentment of the highly compensated players. As last season wore on, the league's TV viewership, attendance and favorability rating all headed south.

At the owners' meeting this week, the NFL — which is, above all, a business — kneeled before its bottom line, something Trump's playbook certainly anticipated. Feeling the heat, the league's 32 owners revamped their national anthem protocol in split-the-baby fashion.

They decreed that teams would be fined for anyone who does "not stand and show respect for the flag and the anthem." If the owner chooses, the fine can be passed onto to the protesting player. In addition, players wishing to send a message could do so, but only by staying in the locker room during the song.

This isn't likely to end the dissent for a league where 70% of its players are black.

The same day as the league's decision, the Milwaukee police released body camera footage showing the takedown and tasing of Bucks basketball player Sterling Brown in January over a parking violation. Both the city's police chief and mayor have apologized, and the offending officers were punished.

By compromising on the principled stand that owners demonstrated in September, all to placate a president's bullying, the league only muddies the water. Trump, in reaction, was hardly conciliatory: He declared that those who don't "stand proudly" for the national anthem "shouldn't be playing" and "maybe you shouldn't be in the country."

Nor may the bottom line be satisfied. New York Jets owner Christopher Johnson has already promised to bear any fine generated by kneeling-protests without forcing players to pay. Should other owners follow suit, there would be a patchwork of protests allowed depending on a team's tolerance. That doesn't end the practice, and it hardly demonstrates the kind of league unanimity the NFL prizes.